“Battery-powered autos proving to be a tough sell,” reads the Detroit News headline today. But automakers already knew that. Unlike the liberal MSM and its green allies who blindly insist on reinventing the wheel every decade, auto engineers know that battery power is inferior technology to the internal-combustion engine. That competition was settled a century ago (and libs say conservatives want to turn back the clock?) when the ICE engine emerged to dominate its battery and steam cousins as the consumer product of choice. Nothing in the last century has changed fundamental engineering and manufacturing costs.

Only 17,425 electric vehicles sold in 2012 — less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. market. So how come automakers continue to build electrics — including by introducing a dozen new offerings this year into a market that doesn’t want them?